With class warfare in full, bloody battle across the United States of America, the federal government, the driving force of the country’s 14-trillion-dollar debt, does not take kindly to individuals flying under the IRS’s radar. Well, unless you are General Electric or another corporation that ships thousands of jobs overseas while being anti-oil, of course. Then you have carte blanche to evade taxes and “gamble” with the welfare of the country. But for everyone else, though, if you make a dollar, you better be sure to give the government its 50 cent.
The FBI’s crackdown on the big three Internet poker sites—PokerStars, Absolute Poker and Full Tilt Poker—has resulted in a mob-like influx of indictments, 76 bank accounts frozen in 14 different countries, and thousands of players—if not more—in America suffering an L due to their suddenly non-working sites.
This is not new news. In the poker world, the contradictory nature of America’s principles vs. America’s practices has been well noted for over five years. But it does make people wonder what’s next. These sites are poker sites, but a slew of bingo rooms and game-specific sites are still out there. A word of advice: Run, run, run for your lives!
If there is any silver lining encompassing this dark cloud, it’s that live casinos have been the beneficiaries of massive traffic since the FBI bust. Casinos from West Virginia to California have been reporting increased action. Many of these casinos were suspiciously abreast of the shutdown, or so it would seem, as they began offering increased poker tournament action.
When the poker rooms shut down, the online players showed up in droves to compete in live casinos.
Now, this isn’t a conspiracy-laden piece. It’s the Native Americans—usually exempt from taxes—who benefit the most from live casino action. But the timing does make some wonder if there’s anything on the back end for the state governments or for the federal coffers besides the obvious increase in immediate tax dollars.
The fact that players can do down the street in thousands of towns and cities in America and play any type of game they want leads some to question why they cannot do the same in the privacy of their own homes.
According to the government, someone playing online roulette might be funding a terrorist organization or helping people to traffic drugs, but since the owners of Full Tilt and other sites have been thoroughly vetted since 2006, that doesn’t wash.
Think about it. ShoveThisDrug-FilledCapsuleDownYourThroatAndCrossTheBorder.com wasn’t targeted, not that any such site exists, obviously. FundATerrorist.net is also not a viable option for Internet gamers. The American government is so involved in the life of its citizens since the Patriot Act that any “shady” enterprise instantly has the lights turned out.
The fact of the matter is that government already knew who was behind these big poker sites. So the excuses being made are asinine.
Meanwhile, America’s live casinos are once again thriving. People claiming huge winnings are immediately prompted to pay in their “fair share” (probably 50%, at the least) before even leaving the doors. And there you have it.
Unfortunately, the live casino crowd is going to die down. Internet gamblers will find a way to play online, and the government has no right to be in their business. The massive government will try to make it its business, but the folks will win.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Black Friday
Well it came as a bit of a shock, but as you are all probably aware the FBI/DOJ swooped hard on the major poker sites on friday and took them down. I real feel sorry for the citizens of the USA, they are supposedly "The Land of the Free" that is as long as the corrupt suppressive government can tax the "free" part. This in my opinion is what it is all about, nothing to do with fraud/money laundering, which may in part be going on, but I feel all they want is their massive cut of the golden egg that is internet poker.
So now the poor american players probably can't even get to their funds, let alone play poker which I imagine for 1000s this is currently their only form of income.
When the story broke I, like most people hit the panic button and put a withdrawal request for most of my Stars bankroll. However, after reading stuff on the forums, decided to cancel the request and withdraw a lesser amount which would still allow me to carry on playing at the volume and level that I am currently.
My inital thoughts was that it was the end of the world in terms of internet poker, but after giving it more thought, the majority of the americans that were playing were probably the better ones that carried on regardless of the inital ban a few years ago and to be fair, I think if anything the europeon fish on the whole are fishier than the yank fish lol.
For the time being, I am still going to carry on playing on stars and see what the play is like without the yanks, I am hoping that the games will get softer.
The month so far has been a bit of a disaster and I am about level overall as I have hit a huge downswing and have been struggling to hit many wins when heads up with only 9.7% 1st places so far in the 134 games that I have played (yes I know the volume is shit too lol) The 17% 4th place stat also tells its own sorry tale.
Still gonna plod on for now, but the lesson to be learnt from the events on this friday is to never keep any more of your poker bankroll online than you have to to play the stakes that you do. It actually makes a lot of sense to do this anyway, its better for us to have the intrest on the money that the sites.
I guess there was only one song I could choose for our american buddies today, maybe all of you should take advice from the middle eastern countries at the moment and take up arms against your own government as they seem to be shafting their own people right up the chutney locker at the moment....
The Doors - The End
So now the poor american players probably can't even get to their funds, let alone play poker which I imagine for 1000s this is currently their only form of income.
When the story broke I, like most people hit the panic button and put a withdrawal request for most of my Stars bankroll. However, after reading stuff on the forums, decided to cancel the request and withdraw a lesser amount which would still allow me to carry on playing at the volume and level that I am currently.
My inital thoughts was that it was the end of the world in terms of internet poker, but after giving it more thought, the majority of the americans that were playing were probably the better ones that carried on regardless of the inital ban a few years ago and to be fair, I think if anything the europeon fish on the whole are fishier than the yank fish lol.
For the time being, I am still going to carry on playing on stars and see what the play is like without the yanks, I am hoping that the games will get softer.
The month so far has been a bit of a disaster and I am about level overall as I have hit a huge downswing and have been struggling to hit many wins when heads up with only 9.7% 1st places so far in the 134 games that I have played (yes I know the volume is shit too lol) The 17% 4th place stat also tells its own sorry tale.
Still gonna plod on for now, but the lesson to be learnt from the events on this friday is to never keep any more of your poker bankroll online than you have to to play the stakes that you do. It actually makes a lot of sense to do this anyway, its better for us to have the intrest on the money that the sites.
I guess there was only one song I could choose for our american buddies today, maybe all of you should take advice from the middle eastern countries at the moment and take up arms against your own government as they seem to be shafting their own people right up the chutney locker at the moment....
The Doors - The End
Saturday, April 02, 2011
So Far so Good + March Round Up
March turned out to be a decent month. As usual did not put in the volume that I had hoped for, mainly as ever due to going out on the piss too often *sighs. I managed to play a total of 304 STTs split roughly 50/50 between the 5s and the 10s. Stats for the month ended like this.
STTs Played = 304
ROI% = 18.4%
ITM% = 43.4
Winnings = $464.50
$/hr: = $11.12
Overall very happy, although it was a strange split. I deliberately fire up the tables so I do not know which table is a 5 or a 10, however I played 150 STTS at $5 and was -1.3% ROI and down $10.50 overall. But at the $10 buyin I played 154 with an ROI of 28% and $475 profit...what the fck is all that about !!!! I obv ran super hot on the 10s and super shite on the 5s lol. I guess I should just be grateful that it wasn't the other way around.
So for April, I really do need to up the volume, I know I keep saying this, but ffs, get your fat arse into gear Gothy and just foooking do it. The plan this month is to play a minimum of 600 STTs. I am now gonna move up to exclusively $10 buyins. With the amount of bank holidays that we have in April, this should be achievable. I can only hope I run as good in them as I did last month as that could be some good wonga and bankroll booster. On the subject of bankroll, I am proably gonna have to take £500 or so out of it to pay for some stuff as we went waaaaaay over budget doing the bathroom up and I also want to take the wife for a couple of days away to Cornwall to watch a play at the Minack Theatre which is one of the things on our "Things to do before we die" list.
I have also took a chunk of my bankroll out and opened up an 888 account to start playing some MTTs, I really do need to play these as to get a really great profitable year it does help if you bink a big score in a decent tourney. Gonna try and fund the MTT entries by playing the $5 stts on there and doing some sats into the bigger tourneys. There are some crazy aggro fish on that network and if you pick your spots you can chunk along nicely. I did play the $33 $50k challenge last night, but went out after squeeze shoving in the BB with KJsoooooooooted and the fish who flatted in the SB tanked and called with AQ, YES, I know it was a good call, but for ffs, I want cheeeeps....
Overall life is good at the moment, apart from work which is boring as shite, but I guess thats what work is all about. Would be nice to bink a lotto win to pay of the mortgage and then bunk off to be a full time sng monkey junkey. You never know, gotta be innit to winnit....
Enough bollocks for this week,
The Cure - LoveSong
STTs Played = 304
ROI% = 18.4%
ITM% = 43.4
Winnings = $464.50
$/hr: = $11.12
Overall very happy, although it was a strange split. I deliberately fire up the tables so I do not know which table is a 5 or a 10, however I played 150 STTS at $5 and was -1.3% ROI and down $10.50 overall. But at the $10 buyin I played 154 with an ROI of 28% and $475 profit...what the fck is all that about !!!! I obv ran super hot on the 10s and super shite on the 5s lol. I guess I should just be grateful that it wasn't the other way around.
So for April, I really do need to up the volume, I know I keep saying this, but ffs, get your fat arse into gear Gothy and just foooking do it. The plan this month is to play a minimum of 600 STTs. I am now gonna move up to exclusively $10 buyins. With the amount of bank holidays that we have in April, this should be achievable. I can only hope I run as good in them as I did last month as that could be some good wonga and bankroll booster. On the subject of bankroll, I am proably gonna have to take £500 or so out of it to pay for some stuff as we went waaaaaay over budget doing the bathroom up and I also want to take the wife for a couple of days away to Cornwall to watch a play at the Minack Theatre which is one of the things on our "Things to do before we die" list.
I have also took a chunk of my bankroll out and opened up an 888 account to start playing some MTTs, I really do need to play these as to get a really great profitable year it does help if you bink a big score in a decent tourney. Gonna try and fund the MTT entries by playing the $5 stts on there and doing some sats into the bigger tourneys. There are some crazy aggro fish on that network and if you pick your spots you can chunk along nicely. I did play the $33 $50k challenge last night, but went out after squeeze shoving in the BB with KJsoooooooooted and the fish who flatted in the SB tanked and called with AQ, YES, I know it was a good call, but for ffs, I want cheeeeps....
Overall life is good at the moment, apart from work which is boring as shite, but I guess thats what work is all about. Would be nice to bink a lotto win to pay of the mortgage and then bunk off to be a full time sng monkey junkey. You never know, gotta be innit to winnit....
Enough bollocks for this week,
The Cure - LoveSong
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